GUIDES · BETSLIP DOCTOR
When is an MLB runner out for leaving the base path to avoid a tag?
A runner can be called out for running more than three feet away from the runner's base path to avoid a tag, unless the movement is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. That path is a straight line from the runner to the base the runner is trying to reach safely, and it is established when the tag attempt occurs. It is not automatically the chalk line between bases. Abandoning the effort to reach the next base after touching first is a separate, judgment-based out and is not an appeal.
For Fans and players judging a rundown or a runner's evasive route without treating the baseline as a fixed corridor. · Updated
The path is set when the tag attempt starts
The rule does not create a fixed three-foot-wide lane around the baseline. When the tag attempt occurs, the base path is the straight line from the runner's position to the base the runner is trying to reach safely. The more-than-three-feet test is measured from that path.
The tag-avoidance condition matters. A curved route or a runner who is already several feet from the chalk line is not, by itself, enough to establish an out under this rule.
The fielding exception and other outs are separate
The rule's exception covers a runner whose action avoids interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. The question is not simply whether the runner moved away from a line; the event must fit the exception and the fielder must be fielding the batted ball.
After reaching first, a runner who obviously abandons the effort to touch the next base may be declared out under a separate rule. The umpire judges abandonment; the ball remains in play for the other runners. This abandonment out is not an appeal play and is separate from a three-foot tag-avoidance out. The rule supplies no fixed abandonment distance.
Which rulebook this explanation uses
This guide follows the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball's Official Baseball Rules, 2026 Edition. Its change summary identifies a neighboring retouch amendment, not a new fixed-path rule; that summary is not a redline. The book gives no separate day-level effective date and states MLB/professional-development scope.
A new path during a rundown
In a fictional rundown, a runner is several feet off the chalk before a fielder begins a new tag attempt. At that moment, draw the straight line from the runner's position to the base the runner is trying to reach. If the runner then goes more than three feet from that line to avoid the tag, the rule can call the runner out. If instead the runner moves to avoid interfering with a fielder who is fielding a batted ball, the stated exception may apply. In another branch, a runner reaches first, then clearly leaves the route toward the dugout because the runner believes play has ended; an umpire may judge that as abandonment, while play remains live for the other runners.
Related questions
Is the three-foot limit measured from the chalk baseline?
No. The path is a straight line from the runner to the base the runner is trying to reach safely, established when the tag attempt occurs.
Is a runner automatically out for being more than three feet from the path?
The rule addresses a runner who exceeds three feet to avoid being tagged, subject to the exception for avoiding interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball.
Is leaving the route after reaching first an appeal?
No. Obvious abandonment after first is a separate umpire-judgment out, and the ball remains live for other runners.